Bathroom Remodel

We have been in our current house for almost 7 years. It's a house that we had built when we decided to move from the country to the city. I know, crazy right?

Actually, where we lived before was 30 minutes - minimum - from anything, including the grocery store. So just a trip to get milk took 1 hour. You had to plan every errand. Once my son came along, it was just too isolated and too far away for me. So we found this nice neighborhood, interviewed several builders, picked one and built a house.

Well, long story short, the builder we picked was a con man, stole a bunch of money from us and we had him arrested. Needless to say, it was a long and horrible chapter of our lives but we learned ALOT of lessons from it.

Anyway, back to the house. Many of the subcontractors that our horrible builder used were absolutely terrible at their jobs. So, it's a good thing that my DH and I are DIYers because we have had to use our skills many times. We've repainted almost every room in the house, replaced flooring, repainted trim, fixed plumbing issues and I don't know what else.

There were 3 rooms in our house that I have never been happy with - mostly because they weren't done the way I wanted in the first place. And I'm not one of these people who don't know what they like, aren't sure about colors, etc. I always know EXACTLY what I want, usually down to the last detail. The 3 rooms are the kitchen, master bathroom, and powder room. So, this week has been Powder Room Remodel Week.

I started with the smallest room first to ease my DH into it. LOL

We actually HAD to replace the toilet in there because it was a terrible flusher. You know how when you go to Lowes and they have all the toilets lined up on the shelf and they start with the "Best" flushers and end with the "Good" flushers (which means crappy by the way). Well, our flusher was in the "worse you can possibly buy" category. We had been talking for 6 years about replacing that toilet. Finally I said, let's just go to Lowes and buy a new one and while we're at it, let's repaint in there too. Well, one thing lead to another and we also ended up replacing the flooring. So, once we get it put back together, all will be new except the pedestal sink, mirror and light fixture.

I'm very excited about the remodel. We removed all of the fixtures and everything ourselves. Then I repainted the walls. They were bright red which would have looked great in a different room but since this room was so small, with no natural light, it just looked like a dungeon. So, I painted them Dancing Mist - which is a light aqua. The new floor turned out great! It's a really small room, as you can see from the pics, so we thought about busting up the old tiles and retiling ourselves. But we had never done that before and I was afraid we would make a bigger mess by busting those tiles up than it was worth. So I talked my DH into letting the floor guys do it. I got lots of estimates (they all charge a minimum for really small spaces like this) and went with a floor store owned by friends of my in laws. They did a really great job and were so clean and professional.

(you can see the old tile good in this pic and the red walls)

I sealed all the grout yesterday and we are now at the stage of replacing the quarter round molding so that I can finish repainting the trim. All the trim in my house was originally suppose to be bright white (which is what I like) but instead the idiot painter used Onion (apparently a yellow onion) because all the trim has a yucky yellow glow. We still have alot of trim in our house that I need to repaint.

So, once I get the trim painted (hopefully today), we can start putting the fixtures back in. For now, I have "before" pictures for you to see. They are dark because it was a small dark room and it's L shaped so it was hard to photograph.

You know the funny thing about this is I had never done any decorating of any kind in this room. Didn't even hang a picture on the wall, no special guest towels. I think I had some kind of mental block against it. Hum. Weird.

Up next, during and after shots!

Presents in the Mail

On Thursday of this past week, I had to go to the hospital to get an epidural shot in my neck for a problem that I'm having with my cervical spine. So, back home later that afternoon, I was laying in bed with an ice pack on my neck (because really, they tell you to resume light activities and to use an ice pack for the pain but how can you walk around doing regular activities and hold the ice pack on at the same time??? I've never figured it out).

Anyhoo, my DH brought in the mail and it just so happens that I had gotten 2 packages I ordered from lovely sellers on etsy.

And I just have to say, even though I had bought and paid for these items, I still felt like the sellers had sent me a gift. They were just awesome. Both were wrapped like presents and both included little freebies that were so sweet I just wanted to cry.

First up was the reclaimed wool ivory flower brooch that I ordered from sumpnsassy for my new black wool coat - that I've unfortunately had to wear ALOT this winter. OMG, it is adorable! The brooch, not my coat. LOL Nancy at sumpnsassy really put alot of time and effort into each petal and it was finished off with about a million buttons. Even my husband commented on the great craftsmanship and how detailed it was. She wrapped it in tissue and included a sweet felted hair clip and handmade thank you card.

Then I opened the package that I ordered from ThePinkDillo. They are rhinestone and hearts gift tags that I bought for my son's teachers for Valentine's Day. I bought some little glass vases at Michaels that I will put about 3-4 fresh tulips in, tie with a ribbon and one of these sweet little tags. (I swear I'll take pics and post it here when I do this - not like at Christmas when I totally forgot to take pics of the awesome handmade gifts I gave his teachers then.)

Angela at ThePinkDillo did a great job on these tags. They are so sweet and perfect. She wrappped them in a little craft box with her logo and even included 3 little freebie tags.

So I just wanted to say thanks to these great ladies, crafters, and etsians. You really made my day on Thursday and I SOOOO appreciate it.

Carpe Vinum - Sieze the Wine!

Corkycrafts has featured my Mystery of My Heart Necklace from Pink Pear Designs in her Carpe Vinum Treasury. It's a really lovely treasury and it makes me want to pop open a bottle of wine :)

Thanks so much Corkycrafts!!

Big Sale at Pink Pear Designs and One Apron listed!

Pink Pear Designs is having a big 50% off sale! I've set up a special section and I've already marked the prices down. I have earrings and necklaces on sale. These are one of a kind pieces that won't be remade. Get yourself something pretty and sparkly for 50% off!

Also, I've finally listed my first apron at Handmade Whimzy. I spent over an hour writing the description. Ugg! My fingers are crossed that they are received well. I'm really enjoying sewing and I've ordered a ton a fabric this week.

This first one is made with Amy Butler's French Wallpaper fabric in Orange from the "Belle" series. The coordinating fabric for the waist and pockets is Seeds Duck Egg also from "Belle". The ribbon ties are white grosgrain. I think it's adorable. I've been wearing the prototype apron that I finished last summer and it looks really cute on. It's really functional and washes well (and it's cute!).

Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear some feedback.

Happy 2010!

Happy New Year to everyone!

I've been MIA from my blog for a whole month now. WOW! I can't believe how fast December whizzed by. But hey, at least I took some pictures to share with everyone. And, I'm back now and so are my etsy shops which were on vacation mode for several weeks so that I could enjoy the holidays with my family and decrease my computer time.

Pic #1 - It actually snowed on Christmas Eve! That's really exciting for East Texas. It doesn't snow here very often anyway, but for it to snow on Christmas Eve was exciting. Of course, it didn't stick or even snow for very long. But it was enough for my son to declare this the best Christmas ever!

Pic #2 - Our Christmas tree this year. We had to get a new one because our old one was REALLY old and some of the limbs were barely hanging on. So, we got one of the new LED lighted trees. They are suppose to use much less electricity, the bulbs don't get hot and it's prelit. YAY! I didn't have to string lights this year. It was awesome! Plus, our new tree is taller than our old one and really pretty.

Pic #3 - This is my favorite ornament and has been since I bought it. Every year we all go down to the Hallmark store (I know, I know, it's not handmade) and pick a new ornament for our tree. It's something that my husband and I started doing when we got married 18 years ago and we do it now with our son. We have had this snowman nesting ornament for several years and I never thought about why I like it so much but my son pointed out to me this year that it's because it's our family. The daddy snowman is on top, the mom in the middle and the "baby" is on bottom. I think he's right. That is why I like it so much.

Pic #4 - My son's tree for his room. He decorated it himself with leftover ornaments and toys from his room. He used a Bionicle for the "star" and put Bakugan and Chaotic cards on the branches. I thought it was great. It's also kinda funny that he's the same height as the tree, isn't it?

Pic #5 - Granny and Papa (my in laws). That's their happy look. But they are great grandparents and Ben loves them very much. :)

Pic #6 - I made these peas for our Christmas lunch but they were sooooooo goooooood that I ended up making them again for New Year's weekend. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com. It's my favorite website for recipes mostly because they are posted by regular people so the ingredients are not fancy schmany things that cost alot but you only use alittle of to make your dish. I've tried many recipes from thefoodnetwork.com and even Rachel Ray's show but they always involve strange ingredients or liquors that causes the guy at the liquor store to look at me like I'm nuts because I'm asking for apple-peanut butter flavored whisky or something equally weird.

Here is the recipe. The only thing I changed was I used Rotel instead of the can of whole tomatoes and I didn't puree them, I just dumped them in along with everything else. It's really more of a black eyed pea soup. The ham makes it really hearty and with cornbread, it is delicious!

Ingredients
1 pound dry black-eyed peas
2 cups chopped cooked ham
salt and pepper to taste
1 pinch garlic powder
2 onions, diced
1 (14.5 ounce) can whole tomatoes (used Rotel instead)
Directions:
Place black-eyed peas in 8 quart pot. Add enough water to fill pot 3/4 full. Stir in ham and diced onions, and season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Place tomatoes in a blender or food processor, and blend until the tomatoes are liquefied. Add tomatoes to pot. Bring all ingredients to boil. Cover the pot, and simmer on low heat for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until the peas are tender.

I'm looking forward to 2010. I hope everyone has had a great New Year and that the year continues to be blessed.